New Apartment Tower in Washington Square West Breaks Ground on Walnut Street

A long-planned apartment tower on the 1200 block of Walnut Street recently broke ground on December 8th, in the Washington Square West neighborhood. This new tower is being built by Goldenberg Group, Hines, and ASB Realty Group and designed by architecture firm Design Collective. The tower was originally proposed by another developer in 2008 and then the site was sold to developer U3 Ventures, but the site was sold again to the current partnership. The site had a parking lot and used to have a small abandoned thrift store on Walnut Street. Behind the site is Fergie’s Pub, along Sansom Street, which will not be altered by this development. This new tower is tentatively being called 1213 Walnut Street by the developers.

The apartment tower will be 26 stories and approximately 300 feet tall. It will have 322 rental units and 7,200 square feet of retail on the first floor, on both Walnut and Sansom Streets. The building will have many amenities, such as an indoor/outdoor gym (with a yoga room), a private dog park, and a roof deck. The building will have no parking, following a trend in apartment developments in highly dense, downtown neighborhoods around the country. Since it is located next to a large parking garage, and near other garages, and in a highly walkable neighborhood near much public transportation, the developers don’t believe that parking needs to be included because the few residents who would own a car can find ample parking nearby. The building will be certified LEED Silver (the discouragement of car ownership, which leads to less use of fossil fuels, adds to that ranking). The tower will have a very modern design, with large windows and sections of bay windows. On top will be a green roof.

This new tower is around the corner from a new midrise apartment development on Chestnut Street and the large East Market development, which includes hundreds of new apartments on Market Street. This is in addition to hundreds of new residential units on South Broad Street and west of Broad. 1213 Walnut Street is just one of many new developments in the Center City housing boom.

By, Gabriel Gottlieb